Kelly and Jones create a tongue-in-cheek, gray-and-silver dry bar to match the metallic hue of another Ikea cabinet at its base. Kelly created the pendant lights by cutting the bottoms off decanters; the backsplash tile is from Floor & Decor.

And Ikea hacking. Which is a slightly criminal-sounding term for the innocent practice of buying something from the iconic Swedish superstore, taking it home and making it indisputably your own.

“Essentially, an Ikea hack is a modification or repurposing of an Ikea product,” says Mei Mei “Jules” Yap, founder of ikeahackers.net. “In its own little way, it breaks into the Ikea code of furniture assembly and repurposes, challenges and creates a new use, or look or dimension, for the item.”

Yap, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, started her site in 2006 as a way to compile her favorite examples of the burgeoning activity. In the beginning, she managed all the searching and posting alone. Today the site boasts more than 4,000 posts, submitted by users from across the globe. The site has 750,000 visitors each month, Yap says; almost half are from North America.

Why Ikea?

According to Yap, “I think, firstly, it’s not too expensive. You wouldn’t cut up a designer piece, would you? Secondly, customizing is also inherent in the Ikea system: You mix and match.”

Her advice to beginning hackers is start simple and stay safe.

“Sometimes just a change in color, fabric or embellishment will make a big difference to the piece of furniture that you have. If you need to use tools, be sure you know what you are doing. Cutting up a piece of furniture may modify the structural integrity of the product, so be clear about the risks. Lastly, be creative. Have fun.”

Kelly’s cabinet is a prime example. She wanted a stylish, floating credenza to store materials and provide counter space. She bought three Ikea Akurum cabinets as a starting point.

“I decided to just make the doors myself because I wanted something personal and unique, and also wanted to save as much money as possible,” explains Kelly.

She cut, hung and decorated the doors, using a reverse staining technique and large floral stencils. In the end, the rustic hanging cabinets cost her about $150.

“I like to do things myself, and I like sharing information,” she says. “I don’t feel like what I do is something that someone with the same abilities couldn’t do.”

Marta Strzeszewski, author of craft and sewing blog From Marta with Love (frommartawithlove.com) is another Colorado Ikea hacker. She makes quilts and handbags for personal gifts and charities, and documents her sewing journey in photographs and tutorials.

When it came time to graduate to an official sewing table, prices led Strzeszewski, of Arvada, to explore creative options.

“Sewing tables start at $600,” she explains, “and most of those are bulky or just ugly. I looked for tips online and I knew that I could make one myself … and Ikea had just opened.”

“On a personal level, I love it,” said Annie Boeckman, local marketing and public relations manager for Ikea Centennial. But she echoed Yap’s concerns about safety and structural integrity.

“From a corporate standpoint, we don’t actually use the term ‘Ikea hacking,’ ” Boeckman said. “When it comes to our quality and durability image, we know how our products work when they’re used in the way we built them.”

Still, the possibility of customization is a selling point for many of the Sweden-based retailer’s products.

Ikea Centennial’s showroom displays a Tarva chest of drawers in its natural, unfinished pine state alongside two uniquely decorated versions. A small sign reminds customers that the product can be “painted or stained to create your own personal style expression.”

Boeckman even coordinated an in-store seminar that offered ideas on how to creatively repurpose IKEA products’ cardboard packaging.

For that April event, Boeckman summoned the help of Denver Craft Ninjas’ Ninja-in-Chief, Becky Hensley. Together, they led a group of more than 30 DIYers, including Nikki Kelly, in a workshop to fashion lampshades and colorful wall art out of the discarded cardboard.

Nicole Hesse of Denver, an occasional IKEA hacker and author of the blog Sew Much Sunshine (sewmuchsunshine.blogspot.com), shows tutorials for the simplest of Ikea hacks, for those with limited time and tools, on her site.